4 Moneysaving Kitchen Items For Frugal Families

Here are my Top 4 Money Saving Kitchen Items…you may think me a tightwad but they have saved thousands of dollars each year for this frugal mom. Money-saving tips for frugal families almost always include a focus on cutting costs in the kitchen Pennypinchers will advise you that cooking from scratch, cooking in bulk, once a month cooking, and trying new frugal recipes will go a long way to trimming your family budget, and they are right. Over the years I have used all of these tips, and have found that there four small kitchen items that we use on a weekly basis to stretch my dollars even further.

1. COFFEE MAKER.

I wasn‘t able to stop drinking coffee completely, but at least I stopped buying it from the coffee shop. At $1.25 each for two medium cups a day on weekdays for my husband and myself, I was spending $25.00 a week, or $100 a month on coffee! That’s over one thousand dollars a year - yikes! I bought a coffee maker using points from my no-annual-fee Visa card. We go through 2 cans of coffee each month ( each one kilogram can will make us about 64 cups). Each can costs $16.50 so $ 33.00 total for the month. With electricity, water, filters, and sugar, I estimate the monthly cost to be $37.00 month - a savings of $63.00/month. Our coffee maker is programmable, so we set it each night and awaken to the lovely aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

2. SLOW COOKER.

Cooking meals at home from scratch is one of the tried and true methods of cutting costs for families. Using a slow cooker to make soups, stews, and other wholesome meals saves me money in several ways: 1) I can use less expensive cuts of meat that require longer cooking times; 2) I can make big batches of a meal and freeze the leftovers for a later date when I don’t feel like cooking - much cheaper to pull something out of the freezer than to go through the drive-thru at McDonald's; 3) the crockpot uses less electricity than a stove would, therefore lower hydro costs) and 4) the meals best prepared in a slow cooker are perfect for using up leftover vegetables from other meals.

My slow cooker was a Christmas gift from my parents fifteen years ago. I use it on a weekly basis in the fall, winter, and spring, and maybe once a month or so through the summer. I can make beef stew to serve five adults for about $10.00, or $2/serving. Friday nights are football nights at our house as two of our sons play. A trip through the McDonald’s drive through costs our family about $36.00 (each ordering a Meal Combo) after the game, so by replacing that meal with homemade beef stew we save $26.00 a week, or $104/month, and about a gazillion calories to boot.

3. BREADMAKER.

We are bread MONSTERS at our house - averaging about one loaf per day. At a cost of $2.00/loaf this is $56.00 per month on bread alone! I can buy a 20 lb bag of flour for $12.00, and 4 jars of bread machine yeast for $10.00 ($2.50 each). My recipe also calls for a very small amount of canola oil and salt in each loaf, which I estimate at a monthly cost of about $4.00/month. This is a monthly total of $26.00 for bread - a $26/month savings. I also use my bread maker to make dinner rolls, hamburger buns, and pizza dough on a regular basis. We have pizza about once every two weeks, and I’ve worked out the cost for the homemade pizza crust at 1.15 (it is slightly more expensive than a loaf of bread due to the Olive Oil and dried Italian Seasoning I add). This makes enough dough for either two medium thin crust pizzas or one cookie sheet size thick crust pizza. The store bought ready made pizza dough costs $3.99 for the same amount - a savings of $5.68/month. The additional savings for dinner rolls is about $7.00/month (two dozen store bought rolls at $3.99 dozen vs. two dozen homemade rolls at $0.50 cents a dozen), and making my hamburger buns from scratch saves about $3.00 per month. So a total monthly savings of $67.68 using my bread maker. While I got mine through a rewards point system at work, this is an item that is often available used and at second hand stores, as many people get rid of duplicate wedding or Christmas gifts. Take the time to read through the manual that comes with yours - I have three recipes that I use over and over again. I love the fact that the bread I am feeding my kids is nutritious, cheap, and absolutely delicious!

4. KITCHEN-SINK-SOUP-CONTAINER

I have saved the best for last. This is simply one large container with a lid. It gives us at least one free dinner every two weeks. I keep a clean, plastic empty ice cream container in the freezer, and collect all leftovers and surplus food items that would make a good soup - I throw in everything but the Kitchen Sink - hence the name. There might only be one or two tablespoons or scoops of vegetables, pasta, rice, meat or poultry left, but I save it all. For example, from Sunday dinner there could be leftover beef or chicken - dice it up and throw it in. Add a few spoons of peas from Tuesday’s tuna casserole. Corn from Wednesday’s dinner of Beef Nacho Casserole, leftover rice and broccoli from Thursday’s Pork Chops, Rice and Broccoli dinner, and whatever vegetables are left in the vegetable crisper at the end of the week (usually raw carrots and celery). I try and use it all. When the tub is about half to three quarters full, I thaw it out, put it in a stockpot, and add either beef or chicken broth, water, salt, pepper, basil, tarragon or cilantro, a couple of bay leaves, and a handful of rice or pasta if needed to thicken it up. By collecting spoonfuls and handfuls of food that would either go in the trash or the compost, I can make a flavourful soup and save the cost of one dinner twice a month. As our dinners average about $25 for five adult servings (mum, dad, and two teenage boys who each eat like a person-and-a-half each), I can save about $50 a month from my Kitchen Sink Soup Container.

These things work in our family’s kitchen to save about $285 EACH MONTH off the cost of food - this is $3,420 each year. With just a little planning and organization I know your family can save some money too!